Daily Fitness

Everyone has 10 minutes. Almost everyone has 30. IF you just decide that it’s a priority, you get it into the calendar. Make it a date. Make it inalterable.

We are meant to move. Our bodies like to move, to stretch, the build, to dance. But our hearts like to beat, ya? And if we do a little to help it along, we last a lot longer. True story: My neighbor’s husband finally finished nursing school a few months back. Can’t be more than 6 – 8 months. He’d gotten great jobs, and was settling into his new career. And just the other day, he passed in his sleep. Another death too early was the boyfriend of a friends daughter. He had a massive heart attack at the old age of .. um… 30! And I lost my best friend at age 36 when he had a massive heart attack in his bathtub.

It can happen to anyone and the more we each personally do to take care of this body, the longer and better our lives can be. That means essentials must become a priority today, not tomorrow after you make that great promotion. T O D A Y!

Seriously. If every movement counts, and you have a few minutes to kill, dance, jump, march, squat, lunge….

If every minute that you move adds up, at the end of the day, you may have added a couple hours of muscle building, fat burning exercise!

With permission, I invite you to explore your Circle of Life.

I know — sometimes just the travel time eats up your work outtime. Sometimes you just get fed up with the gym atmosphere. Don’t let your goals become meaningless little sayings. Don’t keep saying: I really need to get back to the gym. And then turn into an ice cream fueled pity party because just didn’t get around to it. You don’t have to join a gym to get back into it.

I am a gym escapee and have no plans to go back to the Sweatbox. And if I can, you can too. In 1995, I quit the gym and developed my own routines. Said goodbye to skanky afternoon meat market gym atmosphere. Said goodbye to overcrowded gyms, waiting for equipment, dealing with general weirdness. Said goodbye to the ruder elements of that stinky sweat room where the wait was longer than the workout for my favorite leg routines.

I quit the gym and joined a yoga studio, maintained my running program, and developed a home strengthening program. I’d been doing this for 30 years and I knew the basics. Yes, I buy DVDs, but really, they are used maybe a couple of weeks and then discarded. If I can find ways to stay motivated for a daily workout, you can too. ! If I can do it, you can too. Whatever is going to work is what you are going to do.

Transition time meant I had to figure out a way to get a balanced regime that included home workouts. I’d been working out for twenty years, and I knew the routines really well. I didn’t need a personal trainer, nor did I need exercise videos. I just needed the commitment staying strong, supple and fit for a lifetime.

If I can do it so can you:

Challenge yourself: 15 minutes minimum every day of the week. Shoot for 30, then 45, then whatever you can do. Add some endurance training, break it down to small chunks, add some full body resistance, use some resistance tubes, grab a step stool and do step ups… DANCE — yeah, grab your favorite playlist, plug in your earbuds, and dance like you are in the original iPod commercials….

My yoga program, Yoga at Home was created to teach others to become independent. Now I teach and guide clients to find fun ways to enjoy movement. Let’s not even call it a workout. Let’s call it your custom play time. Let’s make it FUN.